State v. Johnson

LAURA DENVIR STITH, Judge.

Four-month-old Jauanea Price suffers serious and debilitating physical injuries which her treating doctor has diagnosed as “shaken baby syndrome.” Defendant-Appellant Billy Johnson was convicted of causing these injuries based largely on the testimony of Marcus Drizzle, nine years old at the time of trial, that two years earlier he saw Mr. Johnson shaking Jauanea so that her head “bobbed” a few hours before she began to display symptoms of shaken baby syndrome. Marcus accompanied his testimony with gestures which indicated that the bobbing resulted from violent…